Rousseff, likely to be ousted from office later this month on unrelated charges of breaking budgetary laws, had previously avoided being dragged into the largest corruption investigation in Brazil’s history.
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Brazil’s top prosecutor has now also asked the Supreme Court to open a probe into alleged obstruction of justice by Rousseff, according to reports.
An overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Brazil’s National Congress, have already voted in favor of Rousseff’s impeachment on charges that she manipulated government accounts. Delcidio do Amaral, formerly the government’s leader in the Senate. who was detained after recordings emerged suggesting he was plotting to spirit a key player in the Petrobras scandal out of the country.
Romero Juca, are also objects of Janot’s requests, but the attorney general’s office did not confirm their identities.
Investigating Judge Sergio Moro publishes wiretapped conversations that appear to show Rousseff plotting with Lula to shield him, although the wording is ambiguous.
The leading newspaper O Globo claimed on Monday that it had obtained information from the vice president’s office that Rousseff is set to resign as president this Friday.
Teori Zavascki, the Supreme Court justice in charge of the Petrobras investigation will decide whether to honor Janot’s requests, though the news reports say there is no timetable for a decision.
Amaral, the government’s former leader in the Senate, declared in plea bargain testimony that Neves benefitted from a corruption scheme involving Furnas, a subsidiary of state-run power utility Eletrobras which operates in the senator’s home state of Minas Gerais.
Rousseff said the accusation was based on outright lies by a former senator in her ruling Workers Party.
Janot’s requests add to a growing uproar over just how many senior politicians are suspected of taking kickbacks from Petroleo Brasileiro SA, now known as Petrobras. If so, the Senate will vote again at the end of the trial, months from now, on whether to terminate her mandate.
In other cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Joao Pessoa, Recife and Salvador, Rousseff supporters marched, saying they would not allow her impeachment.
Retiree Jader Alves says that if Rousseff is impeached, he’ll be back on the streets.
Rousseff’s unpopularity mounted as Brazil fell into its worst recession in decades through what critics call her heavy-handed state intervention in the economy as a commodities boom went bust. Janot said in the documents the “criminal organization” operating at Petrobras would not have been possible without Lula.
Lula’s institute on Tuesday said Janot had offered a hypothesis without proof.
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The prosecutor also asked for an investigation of congressman Marco Maia.
